Saturday, March 12, 2011

I was anticipating this day with alot of excitement, since we had a lot preparation for this teaching session in St. Mary's with 2 Lab practices. And especially since I practiced my game with all my class mates and they liked it so I was very confident and positive about the day. My group had the younger group of Kindergarteners and First graders. Therefore we started our session in the classrooms doing with the children. Then after playing with magnets and drawing with the children. We brought out our sponges and started our arts and crafts of making Sponge Bob’s! We gave out sponges, pipe cleaners to make arms and legs, googly eyes, and big sticks so the children can control them like puppets. The children were so excited and they all wanted make a Sponge Bob and I even made myself one so I can give it to my sister who just had her birthday. It helped that I made my own SpongeBob and sat with the children because I noticed many of the children were watching me as I make mine. I thourly explained and demonstrated to the children of how to make the SpongeBob. But they really began working on their SpongeBob when I sat down and started making mine, so they were making theirs a step behind mine. I guess it’s because they wanted to see how it’s made as many times as they can before starting. After every one made their SpongeBob’s we went to the gym to play our activity games and I gladly did my game. The Indian Caterpillar run SpongeBob twist that we are all Planktons racing to get to Krusty Krab to get the secret formula! First I explained to the children as I showed them by demonstrating with my group, how we lined up and have our hands on the person in front of us shoulders like a caterpillar. Then we began lining up the children in groups of 4 in the proper position like a caterpillar and showed them how to run. And finally we told them to start the relay race once the music begins, the music goes, and they begin little by little already loosing formation and just running to the other side while the younger children are a step slower and getting surpassed in the relay race. The race ended and we had winner and we made them do it again, the children had a lot of fun but the game may be for a slightly older crowd to have better formation. But overall the game was not bad the children all had fun and laughs, and got their heart rate up competing against each other running to half court. We then had a good maze for the Kids of Bikini Bottom that they had to crawl and avoid the jelly fingers then walk like crabs for Mr. Crab. I really enjoyed the thought and imagination of the set up, very clever, and hopefully I”ll make a maze game in future classes. What a great day I had with the children we did it all, first we drew, played with magnets and legos, then arts and crafts making Sponge Bobs. Then we got the kids moving playing many games related with Sponge Bob to build excitement for not only the kids but us Teacher Candidates!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

In our Practice Lab we practiced all our games and I really put in a lot of thought and creativity into my game really wanted to practice it too see if it's as good as I think it is. We warmed up with 2 tag games; a temple tag and noodle tag Game. To get our blood pumping and then we got into our Lab groups. We all spoke about activities that will do at St. Mary's. We each discussed our games and I thankfully I really liked my game and so did everyone else in my group, so I told my TA Frank if I should share it with the class he said sure why not. We got out of our Lab groups and started sharing with the class. I began getting really excited, and a bit anxious, because I played the game many times as a child and I know exactly how to play. The hard part is to make everyone else understand how to play the games just as well as I do.Then when we were asked to demonstrate, I raised my hand took a deep breath, stepped forward and remembered to speak loud and treat my peers somewhat like children. I explained the game of Indian caterpillar and gave them the little story correlating it to the SpongeBob cartoon. That we are all Planktons; racing each other to the other side to the Krusty Krab to get the secret formula of the crabby patty. I then demonstrated with my group the Krazy Kangaroos. And we began the relay race to the other baseline of the gym. Thankfully it seemed like everyone was having a blast. And then we did it backwards which much more coordination and focus to run backwards without tripping, and then quickly lining up without bumping to anyone, it’s a great variation but may be too advanced for an elementary school. I was glad my game went great because it works on your coordination, brings up your heart rate and is very competitive making you want to push yourself to work harder and run faster. I had a good feeling that it was good game, but I was really glad to hear all the compliments about how well or fun the game is. After my game we played one more and then finished in the gym and went to a class room. In which learned more about teaching children, as I had a smile on my because of the success of my game, it really made my day.